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Population study: followed a group

Study that followed 613 adults: magnesium supplements linked to less insomnia, only without diabetes

Chen and colleagues · The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026

Original title: Diabetes modifies the association between magnesium and insomnia, but not depressive symptomatology, in Puerto Rican adults: a prospective cohort study.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

Magnesium was not linked to insomnia in the full group. In people without diabetes, supplement users had lower odds of insomnia than non-users (OR 0.37; 95% CI 0.17, 0.81). People with diabetes showed no link. Blood magnesium was not linked.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
613 people · Puerto Rican adults in Boston followed for about 4 years
What was tested
Whether magnesium from food, supplements or blood predicts insomnia symptoms later
What it measured
The question itself: sleep quality and insomnia
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2026
Source
PubMed record 41862003. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • •613 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: sleep quality and insomnia.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: sleep quality and insomnia

    1

    1 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    6

    4 benefit, 2 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    3

    2 mixed, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    3

    2 benefit, 1 no difference

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does magnesium help you sleep?”

Not clearly; trials disagree.

Confidence: very low. Based on 16 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 2 papers on the same step: 1 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found mixed.

Other papers on the same step

See all 16 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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